Tag: paid search

Social Ads Are Costing You Sales

Social Ads Are Costing You Sales

When a lot of us look at our website traffic reports, social media is a standout performer. If you’re spending any amount of money with a vendor that’s running social ads for you, there’s a good chance it’s your highest-performing traffic driver—at least by the measure of website sessions… How about lead forms? Chats? Calls? I talk to dozens of […]

Back To Basics: Shiny Things Are Killing Sales

Back To Basics: Shiny Things Are Killing Sales

CDPs. AI chat. Identity-resolution retargeting. GEO. AEO. First-party data activation. Cookieless solutions. Two weeks before NADA, the industry is once again awash in promises that this—finally—is the thing that will fix your 2026. It won’t—at least, not on its own. More and more, we’re lost in the static—the white noise of buzzwords and quick-fix shiny solutions. I’m going to call […]

Here’s Why It’s Essential to Find a Balance Between Paid & Organic Marketing

Here’s Why It’s Essential to Find a Balance Between Paid & Organic Marketing

Knowing where to spend when it comes to your dealership’s marketing budget can be a real challenge. As a general rule of thumb, though, when you’re mapping out your budget, thinking about adding more funds to the budget or considering making cuts, it’s essential to look at both paid (SEM) and organic (SEO) marketing and to never put all your […]

Breaking Down the Search Engine Results Page

Breaking Down the Search Engine Results Page

The world of auto dealership marketing often surrounds the search engine results page (SERP). This is inevitable as most people looking to purchase a car will perform some kind of Google search. However, the SERP is an intricate thing with many pieces to consider. In our recent video, What You Don’t Know About Search, Zach Billings, VP of Performance and […]

What’s the difference between a VLA & Paid Search?

What’s the difference between a VLA & Paid Search?

What’s the difference between a vehicle listing ad (or ‘VLA’) and paid search? It used to be that you bid on a keyword (something like ‘Ford dealer’, ‘Toyota dealer’, ‘dealerships near me’, ‘used cars for sale’). In contrast, VLA’s bear more similarities to dynamic used paid search in that (rather than being keyword based) they’re based on the inventory you […]

What are Performance Max ads?

What are Performance Max ads?

Performance Max (or ‘P-Max’) ads are an ad type within paid search that has become very popular in 2022 and 2023. Think of them as a bucket that Google holds out and says, “Pour some money in and we’ll get you performance!” and then try to maximize that performance per dollar in terms of traffic. Hopefully, that traffic generated is […]

What tools should I be using to hold my vendors accountable?

What tools should I be using to hold my vendors accountable?

Now that we’ve discussed what vendor accountability is, let’s discuss some of the tools we’ll use to hold our vendors accountable. Now, before I get into that you’re going to notice that I’m going to use the word ‘our’ a lot. That’s because I don’t identify as a vendor. I identify with the dealer. Our job is to hold the […]

Should I turn my Paid Search off?

Should I turn my Paid Search off?

Organic search versus paid search? You’re looking at it all wrong and here’s why. With strong SEO, should I turn all my paid search off? No, that’s an easy oversimplification. We do have a lot of dealers who have completely moved away from paid search, especially in this current market situation where you can afford to pull back your paid […]